By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer

RISING STAR -- After serving as vice-president and president of CNN en Español, Rolando Santos, a nine-year veteran of CNN, is moving on to Headline News, where he was recently promoted to executive vice president and general manager.

ATLANTA-Amidst the daily deadline drama at CNN of managing coverage of world events, nine-year CNN executive Rolando Santos just got his latest breaking news: a promotion to become executive vice president and general manager of Headline News.

"I knew Monday at noon and took over Tuesday," he said of his new job.

Five years after helping launch CNN en Español and bringing international news in Spanish to some 12 million households across Latin America and about two million in the United States, Santos returned Feb. 17 to English programming. His next challenge is Headline News, the speedier sister of CNN, updating more than 81 million households on news every 15 minutes, which has had a 44 percent gain in viewers since last December. He succeeds Teya Ryan, who became executive vice president and general manager of CNN/U.S.

A Catholic Mexican-American born in Eagle Pass, Texas, Santos, 45, has worked for CNN since 1993, first as executive producer and then as director of CNN Spanish and special programming. Working with three others to launch the Spanish language network, in 1996 he was promoted to vice president, then executive vice president, of CNN Español and shortly afterwards to president, where he also oversaw CNNenEspañol.com and CNNRadio Noticias.

Santos is "more than a little sad" to leave CNN Español. But Headline News "is a terrific network, off to a phenomenal start. It was revamped about nine months ago, has a whole new (younger) audience," he said. "There's a challenge to learning a new audience and being able to serve a new community out there. This is an opportunity to help the company because the company needs it and it serves a huge, huge segment of the population in the U.S. It's a lot of fun. It's a challenge and it's hard work."

MAKING THE ROUNDS--Rolando Santos bids one of his colleagues at CNN en Español, Alexandra Smith, a supervisor of news and business, farewell.

CNN chairman and chief executive officer Walter Isaacson said Santos is one of the "rising stars" of CNN's corporate ranks and "the right person to build on Teya's success. He has made his network into the highest-rated cable news network in Latin America in only a few short years."

And as Santos takes his next step he's glad to have St. Jude, "the patron saint of lost causes," along for the climb. "I'm in one of those businesses where miracles are needed all the time and St. Jude always seems to come through."

He is grateful to have served Hispanics across Latin America, as he went into Spanish language broadcasting to give back from what he's learned on the English side to others of his heritage.

"Spanish-speaking people from all over the world, and specifically Latin America, now have a CNN product in their language from their point of view that's relevant for them with all of the standards and ethics and quality controls and lack of censorship that the CNN brand name brings . . . That's not to say that there weren't valid newspapers and valid radio stations, but with the global reach that we have-43 bureaus and people all around the world-that's hard to beat," he said.

Santos noted that CNN Español doesn't try to compete with foreign media outlets on local coverage but rather focuses on the international news there, and around the world. In the heat of the rioting and the stream of presidents in Argentina recently, reporters covered the economic crisis there around the clock, and have reported from Afghanistan. CNN Español has the CNN advantage of being able to get fairly easily interviews with international experts and analysts.

Before moving behind the daily broadcasts, Santos began his career on air, working as a disc jockey in high school and earning a bachelor's degree in journalism at Texas A&M University. among past jobs he has worked as a reporter, anchor, producer and assistant news director at stations from San Antonio to San Francisco.

His decision to move away from the reporting scene to management occurred after covering one too many gruesome and sad stories. He recalled one incident in particular when he went to cover a fire in San Jose, Calif.

The parents were at work, he said. The children were locked inside, with bars on the windows. He felt helpless to free them.

"They were Spanish kids and I could understand them. That was one of those moments when I decided I didn't want to be 45 and doing this."

One of the first Hispanic TV reporters in the 1970s, Santos was determined to stay true to his Mexican-American heritage and resisted pressure of executives to make a TV transformation to Ronald Sanders. "Back then we used to get letters" (containing ethnic slurs), he said, because I wouldn't change my name. The funniest letter was this lady who....said, 'I think you do a great job speaking English. I just want to know when you're going to learn to pronounce your name right?'"

He hopes he has helped others, maybe a Hispanic or minority, to say "if he can do it, I can do it." "From that very first day when I wouldn't become Ronald Sanders as I was urged to I made a difference."

Even with all the violence and devastating news, he knows "I bring information for people that can help them, that they need to know about. Sometimes it hurts them but it helps them because it opens their eyes."

One of his most memorable media moments was interviewing and being blessed by Mother Teresa in California before a loud crowd of thousands. As he approached her he "walked into this bubble of peace and tranquility" and as he spoke with her he felt totally calm and thought "I'm in the presence of a saint."

Santos' Catholic upbringing and faith has helped shaped his life outlook. While a self-described "Christmas and Easter Catholic" at St. Jude the Apostle Church, Atlanta, he seemed interested in talking about his faith and wears medals on his necklace of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He recalled his altar boy days at Our Lady of Refuge Church, and serving for his grandfather's funeral with two other boys.

They were "let's just say at a clumsy age," he said, and one of them fell and dropped the crozier, which hit the priest. "He got upset and basically told all three of us we were going to hell. I was mortified and my best friend looked at me and said, 'Look on the bright side, no matter what we do it doesn't matter anymore.' I guess it's all in your point of view," Santos said, laughing.

He credits his Catholic upbringing with teaching him to believe in and trust himself and live righteously and take risks. "A lot of times you make decisions based on good information and the facts, that's two-thirds of it . . . At some level I'm taking a leap of faith that the decision I'm making or the direction I'm going is the right one and put my career or decision in the hands of a higher authority. I don't want to make this come across like I make decisions and let God do the rest. What I'm saying is because I was raised Catholic and I was taught good things happen to good people and if you're just and fair and right about all these things then you generally come out OK."

He has been married for 17 years to Pam, and feels a general sense of gratitude for his life and the opportunity to spend time with his 10-year-old twin daughters.

Santos has traveled around the world for news projects, and enjoys visiting cathedrals on trips. He recalled visiting "a small, beaten up Catholic church" in Istanbul while helping launch a network there. He sought refuge there. "It was right after the earthquakes and there was a lot of devastation and stuff so I needed to kind of realign myself."

"Realigning himself" is important to Santos.

Whether facing earthquakes or failure, Santos struggles with fear "all the time," but just tries not to let it paralyze him, but rather stay sharp and motivated. "The biggest sin is not the sin of commission. It's the sin of omission . . . The worst sin in my book is not making a decision because if you make a bad decision you can always fix it. Going back to the Catholic point of view I believe every decision I've made, even the bad ones, God put this particular obstacle in front of me for a reason because I was supposed to learn something."